22.4.11

Conservatives "Economic Stability" and e

I read in the Calgary Herald earlier this week that the priorities of my Conservative MP Diane Ablonczy are "the economy and stability." Considering conservative policy on the economy (deregulation, privatization, lower taxes, fewer tariffs, foreign investment and ownership, etc.), this seems like the worst way to promote stability. I think Ablonczy should simply say her priority is unmitigated economic growth despite future costs to communities, small businesses, the environment, the disadvantaged, and pretty much every Canadian, very few of whom will be able to afford the inflated costs of living.

As an example: Alberta. Following a conservative economic policy for the past several decades, the province has a bloated infrastructure and skyrocketing prices in energy, food, housing, education and healthcare. How did it happen? They allowed economic growth to happen too quickly. People flooded the province seeking work causing more demand on just about everything. Private industry was willing to pay outrageous wages and prices for services and supplies making it impossible for the public and non-energy sectors to keep up with livable wages. The gap between rich and poor widened shockingly and as history has demonstrated over and over again - the bubble popped and citizens and province are left with things they can't pay for.

In mathematics we have a number, e, which represents the natural growth constant. It is a number related to everything in the universe that grows. It is also called Euler's Number and it's value is roughly 2.7182818284590... (it's irrational). If things grow at a faster rate, I believe it is unsustainable. If it grows at a slower rate, there is a risk of it failing or dying.

It's not that I don't understand the Conservative's policy. They want to lower corporate taxes so more national and international corporations will park themselves in Canada, create more jobs and in turn generate more revenue for the government. The fallacy is twofold. The larger and wealthier these corporations become, the more political power they gain over than the people (gov't) and their interest is not a public one. Second, the money pools at the top and the benefits are not enjoyed by the most of the population.

The Conservative Party of Canada is promoting a get rich quick scheme that is not-sustainable and that puts our nation's proud federal services and increasingly less stable economy at risk.

I believe the greatest challenge we face is that Canada feels it must compete with the United States with tax rates so our jobs won't flow south. If we operate out of fear rather than out of our identity, we risk losing ourselves completely.

If you choose to not vote Conservative, I encourage you to vote strategically (seriously, visit this site). The Green, Liberal and New Democrat Parties are not very far from each other ideologically whereas the Conservatives are drifting further and further to the right.